1. Field of Invention
This invention is in the general field of casino gaming and, more particularly, is a method of playing stud poker in a casino.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Poker is the most frequently played card game in the United States. Moreover, Poker has a gambling aspect whereby a player is permitted to wager that he holds a poker hand that is superior to poker hands held by all other players in the game. Without the gambling aspect, Poker would be one of the least frequently played card games.
Although the gambling aspect is important, Poker's popularity is enormous because wagering limits can be varied to make Poker available to rich and poor alike. Additionally, Poker is easy to learn and can be played in a multiplicity of different ways. Typically, the number of players in the game is from two to eight.
What is arguably the earliest form of poker was played with a deck of twenty cards during the 1830's on Mississippi river boats. Currently, there are approximately 100 variations of Poker, most of which are played with a conventional deck of 52 cards.
Poker games fit into one of two classes; Draw Poker and Stud Poker. In Draw Poker the player's hand is hidden from other players in the game until an identification of a winning hand is to be determined. In Stud Poker some of the cards of the player's hand are exposed to the other players, the remainder being hidden until the identification of the winning hand is to be determined.
An invariant feature of almost all Poker games is that a hand is comprised of five cards. The value of the hand is determined by its rank. The player with the highest ranking hand is usually the winner. The rankings of Poker hands, in descending order, are given as:
ROYAL FLUSH, (Ace, King, Queen, Jack and 10 of the same suit);
STRAIGHT FLUSH, (five cards in sequence in any suit, i.e. Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, of the same suit);
FOUR OF A KIND, (four Aces is highest);
FULL HOUSE, (THREE OF A KIND plus a PAIR, i. e., 10, 10, 10, King King);
FLUSH (Five cards of the same suit);
STRAIGHT (five cards in sequence but of different suits, i.e., (Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7);
THREE OF A KIND (Three cards of the same rank, i.e., three Aces);
TWO PAIRS (i.e., two Kings and two 10's);
ONE PAIR (two 5's); and
NO PAIR
When hands of equal rank are compared, rankings of cards comprising each hand determine the highest rank. Thus, for example, a hand that comprised of a pair of 10's has a higher rank than a hand that is comprised of a pair of 9's.
In traditional Poker, one player plays against all other players. However, there is an increased desire of the management of casinos for a casino Poker game where each player plays against a dealer who represents the casino. Casino Poker can provide more revenue to the casino than traditional Poker because Casino Poker game is invariably structured to give the casino an advantage. Exemplary of Casino Poker is Caribbean Stud Poker which is described in U. S. Pat. No. 4,836,553.